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Showing posts with label Economic and Social Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economic and Social Development. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 September 2016

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet Ref: Global Dev Professionals Network_The Guardian UK

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet.- brought to us by the Global Development Professionals Network.



Global temperature record brocken:

"Every one of the past 14 months has broken the global temperature record. Ice cover in the Arctic sea just hit a new low, at 525,000 square miles less than normal. And apparently we’re not doing much to stop it: according to Professor Kevin Anderson, one of Britain’s leading climate scientists, we’ve already blown our chances of keeping global warming below the “safe” threshold of 1.5 degrees." quoted from the Guardian.


Global Temperature Targets and how to achieve them

"If we want to stay below the upper ceiling of 2 degrees, though, we still have a shot. But it’s going to take a monumental effort. Anderson and his colleagues estimate that in order to keep within this threshold, we need to start reducing emissions by a sobering 8%–10% per year, from now until we reach “net zero” in 2050. If that doesn’t sound difficult enough, here’s the clincher: efficiency improvements and clean energy technologies will only win us reductions of about 4% per year at most." 


Quick look


"Maybe our engineers are missing the point. The problem with geo-engineering is that it proceeds from the very same logic that got us into this mess in the first place: one that treats the land as something to be subdued, dominated and consumed. But the solution to climate change won’t be found in the latest schemes to bend our living planet to the will of man. Perhaps instead it lies in something much more down to earth – an ethic of care and healing, starting with the soils on which our existence depends.

Of course, regenerative farming doesn’t offer a permanent solution to the climate crisis; soils can only hold a finite amount of carbon. We still need to get off fossil fuels, and – most importantly – we have to kick our obsession with endless exponential growth and downsize our material economy to bring it back in tune with ecological cycles. But it might buy us some time to get our act together." ref The Guardian
Well known but quickly forgotten. 
"Feeding the world isn’t about higher yields; it’s about fairer distribution. We already grow enough food for 10 billion people. In any case, it can be argued that regenerative farming actually increases crop yields over the long term by enhancing soil fertility and improving resilience against drought and flooding. So as climate change makes farming more difficult, this may be our best bet for food security, too." 


READ MORE? 


1. Our-best-shot-at-cooling-the-planet-might-be-right-under-our-feet? from The Guardian Global Development Professionls Network


REFERENCES brought to us by the Guardian


a) PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming 

read for free at their link above.

Saturday, 28 November 2015

Sustainability science: Exploiting the synergies published in Nature (NPG)



Sustainability science: Exploiting the synergies

David Griggs, professor of sustainable development at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Warwick, UK. reviews in Nature, Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs book

The Age of Sustainable Development

 Columbia Univ. Press: 2015.ISBN: 9780231173148
Here I shall quote a couple of  quotes which I can easily relate to from Griggs review:
"As a concept and practice, sustainable development emerged on the global scene in 1972, with the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Four decades on, in the year that the United Nations is due to set its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the idea remains fuzzy around the edges. Jeffrey Sachs's The Age of Sustainable Development sharpens our understanding. It is, in my view, the best, most comprehensive and most articulate exposition of sustainable development ever written."
Economic and Social factors are underlined:

ECONOMIC:
"Sustainable development was once considered a problem of developing countries, solvable through, and almost as a by-product of, economic growth. But no country has pulled itself out of poverty without fossil fuels, whose emissions drive climate change and pollution, or nitrogen-based fertilizers, which promote algal blooms. And richer countries have demonstrated the problems of uncontrolled development of land and resources, a factor in biodiversity loss. Sustainable development is crucial for all countries, so the SDGs will apply to every nation."

SOCIAL
"How to achieve a sustainable future? Education, Sachs notes, is a lynchpin. When girls stay in school for longer, fertility rates drop. Households with fewer children invest more in education, health and nutrition. He quotes Scottish economist Adam Smith, who wrote in The Wealth of Nations (1776) that because society benefits when people are educated, the costs should be “defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society”. That we have not achieved this more than two centuries later is a baffling and damning indictment."  Blogger's note(Although the Scots are known for their legendary frugality many may take a book from the bicycle Dutch population. Granted Holland is a flat country.

SCIENTIFICALY MEASURED FACTS:
"Alongside the social challenges are climate change, ocean acidification and the current mass extinction of species — serious threats to humanity's capacity to thrive or even survive. For example, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising by more than 2 parts per million each year. Sachs concludes that no country is currently on a path to sustainable development."

HOLISTIC NATURE OF THESE PROBLEMS. 
"What becomes clear is that understanding the links between these issues is essential. Along with development aims such as sanitation and health care for a growing and ageing population, there are environmental challenges such as mitigating climate change."

The full review and related links to NPG are well worth reading_Great background reading for COP21 participants and all concerned citizens!


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